The Broken Compass
by GoddessOfCsilla
Summary: Set After Season Two Finale...Mai and Zuko struggle to stay alive as they battle the depths of the pirate ship that attacked the fire nation vessel bringing Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee back to the Fire Nation. Maiko,Return of Zhao, Rated for Violence


**The Broken Compass **

By: GoddessOfCsilla

_Disclaimer: Me no own Avatar! Savvy?_

From her quarters, Mai watched the rolling sea fold and spray through a wide window. Moonlight spilled over the ocean, casting glittering shards of surf through the sea and water pounding against the side of the ship to spray diamonds up to her window. She breathed it in, feeling vary much alive….and awake even through the dark hours of the night. Tomorrow they would meet back with Azula on the coast of the Fire Nation with the new addition to their gang, Zuko .What was to become of him, she could guess, but overall only one thing was certain—she would never be seeing him again.

The coast was near visible now—a strip of fiery light hanging over the deep black sea. Along with the new warmer waters came a changing tide and new winds. When Mai listened closely she could hear the helmsman and captain arguing and the engines straining against the new currents. Mai did not know much about maritime protocols—but she could tell something was wrong.

She gasped and leaped backwards from the window as iron lines were cast overboard just outside her window. The thundering of boots came from the hall and men's voices boomed towards her cabin. There were only three male crewman on _this_ ship.

Mai reached for her knives and positioned herself behind the hinged door and waited.

What the _heck_ is going on….?

She was about to call for Ty Lee when her sharp scream echoed from down the hall. The raven haired girl's hand was on the door handle when it struck her—**pirates**.

Who would dare attack a ship belonging to the royal fleet? What had changed since she left the Fire Nation?

_Zuko_.

They were after _him, _not treasures. Before she could complete her next thought her door was being reduced to molten slag—glowing from a fiery fist pushing itself through the door.

Would she be able to defend herself against the invaders?

She gathered her knives and launchers and prepared to ambush the intruder when they broke free through the door.

She unleashed a furry of stilettos and leaped back to fire another round when they were engulfed by flame.

"_STOP_!" Shouted the man.

"Zuko?"

"Get out of here!"

Her eyes widened in shock and she ran to him, startled but ready to trust him with her life. They fled down the hall towards the galley and Mai restrained a scream as she saw Ty Lee's end of the corridor melt away from the fury of a fire ball eating through the hull.

"Zuko-WATCH OUT!"

Another barrage of small fire balls pelted the port side of the ship parallel to the corridor they raced down. Zuko grabbed her hand and pulled her faster as the raining cannon balls of red shot through the metal around them.

The temperature was rising fiercely as they fled past the ex-galley and onward towards the bow deck. They skidded abruptly as the hall erupted into blue flame and chunks of molten metal began to drop below into the now visible and boiling sea.

An old nursery rhyme came to mind as she stared gaping from behind Zuko.

Can't go over it, can't go around it, gotta go through it—

"On the count of three…"

"One."

"Zuko----"

"Two."

"Your NOT _serious_?!?

"Three"

Mai intertwined Zuko's hand into hers as they leaped over the growing hold in the deck through the flame.

She kept her eyes straight ahead as Zuko bended the fire around them and reminded herself there was no _second chance_—no net to protect her as she fell from the tight-rope while visiting Ty Lee—no arms to catch her as she fell from the brig catwalk in the basement of the ship.

They landed sprawled across heating floor safely.

Now it was her time to pull Zuko up from the deck.

He thanked her and they ran more—her heart pounded in her chest, her nose charred from the acid scent, her lungs revolted against the smoky air, and her eyes burned from tears and the smoke filling her vision. Both coughed and dragged each other forth up onto the deck where battle filled the air as much as smoke and fire. Mustachioed, grim, and blood-lusting fire nation pirates whipped fire benders with weapons of exotic alloys and shouted to each other in foreign tongue. At the top of the stairs Mai looked at Zuko and he was staring back at her. Something unfamiliar was in his eyes—maybe once he was caring for someone other than himself—what would Azula want with him then?

"What now?" She asked from behind a flurry of coughs.

"We need to fight."

"What? They're after you!" She looked into his eyes but her words had done nothing to startle him.

"Anyone who attacks the Fire Nation shouldn't deserve what they're after…"

That seemed to hit home but he still seemed unconvinced, watching a female bender fall at his feet with a large deep and cauterized gash in her chest.

Mai gathered her bearings and pulled Zuko's hand, still melded with hers, towards port.

"What are you _doing_?"

"We're boarding their ship."

_We're?_

Another fire ball crashed into the deck and erupted where they had been standing and then from behind the fiery tendrils Mai saw a familiar face. _No, it can't be….._

Zuko's eyes widened in shock, and in his startled and susceptible state Mai pulled him over the boarding lines and onto the enemy ship.

"We need to hide, our ship is going to be at the bottom of the sea any second now, you idiot."

Zuko scrambled over the unfamiliar deck and kept his gaze at where the figure had been standing.

He shook his head repeatedly and Mai pulled him through a random door beneath the bridge of the 'pirate' ship.

She stumbled forth into a small armory pulling Zuko behind her and locking the doors. If they weren't found before they reached Fire nation shores Zuko and she would be fairing well. Mai cast one last look at wavering Zuko before passing out.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

"_Admiral Zhao_!"

The side-burned man walked to petty officer Zarrof's end of the flaming deck, an heir of brilliance and power that surrounded him causing the pirates and soldiers around him to stare.

"Yes, Zarrof, news of the prince and the two girls?"

He saluted and continued shakily, "Lady Ty Lee is accounted for sir—but badly injured."

"The Prince and Lady Mai are believed dead."

"Excellent." He said, casting a final and curios look to the molten bridge of the fire nation transport.

0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.0o.

A/N-Sorry I'm putting this up before I finish the rest of my growing stories, I hoped you enjoyed anyway :3

Hmm…I've always wanted to do this though it's cheesy anyway…

_Zuko: NOooooo!! Zhao!!11 I saw that spirit thing like PWN YOU!!_

_Me//slaps Zuko// Pull yourself togetha man' you're a pirate now…kinda…O,o_

_Mai: Hm…I'm being particularly un-Mai-like now but this will be explained next chapter._

_Me: Thank you, Mai!_

_Zhao: RRRAAWWWR!!!!_

_Me//cough// Please R&R_


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